Business Travel… with a side of Leisure?

People who don’t travel for business tend to romanticize it, but those who travel routinely for work know: it can get awfully tedious, and people generally just want to get back home as soon as possible. But what if you could sacrifice almost nothing and vastly increase the gratification of such travel – and even look forward to business trips? I’m not talking about booking a massage – though that certainly has its merits. I’m talking about heading to a cool nearby café instead of eating the same corporate breakfast downstairs at your hotel every day. Or – if you can possibly spare it – add a few extra hours, a day or even couple of days to take in local attractions or absorb a bit of the local culture. Eventually, you may consider staying at an AirBnB in a residential neighborhood instead of a corporate hotel – many listings now advertise being “business ready.”

In an hour before or after a full day of meetings, you can have a coffee or a beer and observe how the locals interact – in two hours, you can actually participate in the interaction (my tip: sit at the bar and chat with the bartender). With half a day, head to an attraction the locals are proud of – I can help you skip the line (without paying the fees that “skip the line” tours charge). Spare any more time than that, and you will feel as if you’ve been able to squeeze in a real vacation during a business trip – you won’t regret it.